Forever and Always
by Astrid Goes For A Spin
Summary: He wears a Band-Aid on the fourth finger of his left hand every day for the rest of his life. Non-compliant with 214, "Sun of a Gun."


He wears a Band-Aid on the fourth finger of his left hand every day for the rest of his life.

.

The first Band-Aid is soggy and gross and a little upsetting, and he wears it until she passes away. He can't bear to part with it. Happy helps him create a special section of his comic preservation tank to keep the Band-Aid in, for forever.

From then, he puts a fresh one on every day. He goes through boxes of them, plain beige Band-Aids. Paige realizes and catches on before anyone else does, even Toby, and makes sure there are boxes at the garage just in case the day's Band-Aid gets torn or wet from a case.

At first they seem to get in the way of his fingers when he's hacking or coding, but he adapts quickly. Soon, his hands feel naked when his finger doesn't have a Band-Aid on it.

.

Megan wears her Band-Aid – the first and only one – up until she dies. Even after she passed away, Sylvester did not allow them to remove it from her hand.

Wedding rings are not customarily stolen from the deceased, after all, and after a painful conversation, that is what the funeral home understands that Band-Aid to be.

It stays with her. And after cremation, its ashes mingle with hers.

.

Sylvester is not an outside person, and the idea of his skin tanning is preposterous. But after a few weeks, there is a visible difference. His ring finger where the Band-Aid covers it is pale and white and unhealthy-looking.

Megan had retained that beautiful coffee color to her skin right up until the end, he remembers. It is a blessing that his unbelievable photographic memory captured every second of their relationship. Walter thinks it a bit of a curse, he thinks, but Sylvester likes to remember.

Even though she is no longer alive, the thought of her calms his heartbeat and makes him smile.

.

The first time Ray shows up after he left, he has a small box for Sylvester.

"It's a real ring, buddy," he says, slapping him on the back. Sylvester remembers the amazingness of his easy lying to the team to protect the sanctity of his commitment to Megan when she wanted him at the hospital. Saying they'd been bowling. The kind of loyalty Walter tries to express but struggles with.

(But maybe not. "Brothers.")

"I know I didn't have time the first time, but I found something real nice," Ray says enthusiastically. Sylvester's fingers shake as he opens the box to a beautiful wedding band. Gold. He can tell it's real. Where the unemployed, homeless, quasi-criminal Ray found the money to buy a gold wedding band, he doesn't want to know.

He whispers his thank you.

"Well, aren't you gonna put it on?"

"Can't," Sylvester says quietly, and shows him the Band-Aid. Ray looks shocked, then smiles. "The Band-Aids were good enough for her. Megan never cared about this kind of stuff."

"Gotcha," Ray agrees. "Want me to take it back?"

"No, it – it means a lot," Sylvester chokes out. Ray returns to the airstream, patting its side and greeting it like a human, and Sly stares for a moment before closing the ring box and tucking it into his pocket.

It goes into the preservation tank eventually, too.

.

"Why don't you just get a tattoo?" Happy had to root through their trash for something inadvertently thrown away, and there were more Band-Aid boxes than any normal person ever had in their garbage. "No more pouring money down the drain for temporary memories."

"A tattoo? Are you insane? Needles? And germs and blood and pain and HIV?" Sylvester's voice raises to a half-shriek.

"Whoa, pal," Toby says, rearing back and raising his hands in defense. "Take a chill pill, nobody's putting you in a chair and forcing all of those tiny needles into the skin of your-"

"Toby, stop terrorizing Sylvester," Paige calls from upstairs.

"We're not," Toby and Happy say in unison.

"Why don't you try a temporary tattoo, then?" Happy suggests with a shrug. "You'd save the cash, at least. They last longer than Band-Aids."

"Do they even make Band-Aid-shaped temporary tattoos?" Paige wonders.

"I can," Happy says with a shrug.

.

The temporary tattoo makes his skin crawl.

His hand is naked, and it almost makes him hurt.

The Band-Aid tattoo is a good likeness of The Original, but it almost reduces him to tears.

No one says anything, no one protests, when he rubs it until it almost completely comes off and he wraps a new Band-Aid around the finger.

.

A case – and Paige – force him to speak with his parents eventually.

In between death-defying stunts and heart-pounding moments of danger, Sylvester's father notices his Band-Aid. "What the hell is that? You cut yourself, boy?"

"It's a Band-Aid, Dad," Sylvester responds evenly. "Band-Aids prevent infection and disease over injuries and-"

"Are you all right? Are you hurt? What's wrong?" His mother, typically over-concerned. He takes his hand out of her grip.

"I'm not cut," he says quietly. His parents share a puzzled look, before his mother rips the Band-Aid off his finger, and he steps away from her, suddenly aggressive. "Don't touch it," he snaps, more angry than he thought he ever could be. "The Band-Aid stays on."

"I knew you were infatuated with comic books and other childish crap," his father starts, "but wearing a Band-Aid when you're not injured is downright ridicu-"

Paige, as usual, comes to the rescue. "Mr. and Mrs. Dodd, what Sylvester is trying to say is that the Band-Aid is a symbol of his marriage. He and Megan didn't have time to go ring shopping, and-"

"Sylvester? Our Sylvester? He knocked up a girl, married her in a fix and didn't even tell us about it? His own parents?"

Sylvester removes himself from the situation, shaking. He retreats to the loft, to Walter's room. He can remember the way Megan's hair smelled, and he recalls it to keep himself from throwing a jar of mouse droppings – overlooked, somehow, in Walter's rampage after Megan's death – onto his parents' heads.

"Megan wasn't pregnant," Happy snaps, marching toward his father. "She was dying. Sly stayed at that hospital for weeks before she passed away."

"What happened to her?" his mother gasps.

The garage door slams. Sylvester remembers Paige's advice from a long time ago. _Think of a warm, happy person_. _And how she made you feel_. A few tears well up in his eyes, but he starts when Walter's clipped, furious voice enters the conversation.

"She had multiple sclerosis. Her body was failing her. Her nervous system was falling apart. Even if she and Sylvester were able to engage in sexual intercourse – which, due to her weakness, I doubt ever was able to happen – her body wouldn't have been able to support the fetus."

"Not to mention the fact that Megan was the sweetest girl any of us ever knew and wouldn't make those kind of mistakes outside of marriage," Cabe adds, and Sylvester can imagine him crossing his arms, trying to look as intimidating as possible.

"So he hooked up with some random chick and married her before she could die? That's just the kind of stupid, thoughtless-"

"It was an excellently well-thought-out and executed decision," Walter says defensively, his voice rising. "Sylvester did what he had to do to protect her!"

"Protect her from who?" Sylvester's mother asks the garage hopelessly.

"Walter," Toby explains, in his I'm-trying-to-lighten-the-mood voice. "Walter had Megan's right to control her own medical care revoked by legal action. Sylvester usurped him so Megan could die in peace."

"Who even was this woman?" his father roars.

"My sister," Walter says, his voice hard and cold. "And unless you're planning on showing more respect to Sylvester's and Megan's relationship – even though she's dead – I suggest you get out of our garage, now."

"Walter," Paige warns. "They're still in-"

"I don't care! If they're going to behave like this about my little brother, the cartel can have them."

Yep. Sylvester was definitely crying now.

"Ah, let 'em stay," Toby says generously. "If they say anything else, Happy's got a wrench."

His parents don't comment any more on Sylvester's marriage.

.

"I like a guy in a sweater vest," the woman says flirtatiously.

Sylvester pushes his glasses up his nose. He and Toby are in the coffeehouse before work – cinnamon, ew – and the doc had split to hit the bathroom before driving to the garage together. Leaving Sylvester to the sharks.

Her hand trails from his shoulder down his chest. Sylvester watches her fearfully, swallowing hard. For some reason, the blond seems to think this is encouragement of her pursuit, and she grabs his hand to play with it.

Sylvester is frozen, unable to move. Sweat trickles down his neck.

"No wedding ring, huh?" she grins. She examines the Band-Aid with an exaggerated eye. "Or you've hurt your finger from twisting it around and taking it off so much."

"I'm married," he finally manages to squeak out. In his peripheral vision, he can see Toby emerging from the men's room and honing in on the uncomfortable encounter, starting to push his way through the tables to get to them.

"Sure ya are," the woman says patronizingly, and this gives Sylvester the strength to yank his hand from her perfectly manicured claws – Megan always had clean, short nails, because she didn't have the time or strength to polish them – and stand. "Where's the wife, then, hubby?"

He is married.

While the technical term would be _widower_ , Walter called him the _husband_ , and that is how he considers himself, still, after all these years.

How can one be widowed when the marriage has lasted weeks, not decades? There was so much they didn't get to do together, and so much that he will never offer to any other woman.

"With the stars," he whispers, and turns his back on her.

.

Toby reaches him then, swipes their coffees from the table with a patronizing smile to the vixen trying to capture Sylvester, then pats him on the back as they make their way out.

"Thought I was gonna have to rescue you there, pal," he says as they climb into the truck. "You handled it well, though."

"Thanks, Toby."

"Not sure I would've wanted to get away," Toby jokes, tipping his hat towards the passenger seat.

"Are you insane? Happy would take a blowtorch to you."

"That is true," Toby concedes with a broad smile. "But seriously, proud of you, pal."

"Let's not tell the others about this, okay?" Sylvester asks quietly.

Toby looks at him in surprise. (Toby can, even now, be counted on for eavesdropping and gossip.) "Sure thing, Sly. No one needs to know except us."

"And Megan," Sylvester says, looking out the window at the sky.

.

Ralph is the only one left, so many decades later, who remembers the Band-Aids. Happy and Toby's children and his own little brother and sister understood their Uncle Sylvester's relationship, but none of them were alive when it happened. None of them remembered when she died – the fungus in the hospital day – and none of them were there to set her rocket into the Christmas Eve sky.

None of the rest of the people who were there that day are left.

Happy and Toby and Walter and Ray and his mother are all gone, and Sylvester lived to be a very old and somehow still happy man.

Hospitals have changed a lot since Megan was in them, but Sylvester, at the end, claimed he understood her desire to be anywhere except within their walls. Her hate-hate relationship with the institution that prolonged and prolonged her pained life.

When Sylvester was too weak to do it himself, Ralph sat by his bedside with a fresh box of Band-Aids and changed them every morning. The hospital staff gave up trying to understand the strange old Mr. Dodd when he began calculating a better way for them to do just about everything.

There are people who care about their Uncle Sylvester, waiting to see the body before it is cremated and the remains are turned over to Ralph, who has a rocket of his and Walter's design – he's been holding onto this one for a long time – programmed and ready to launch Sylvester's ashes into the sky to be with Megan's.

But none of those people are like Ralph, who can process helping prepare the body. The morticians prefer to dress and ready the corpse themselves, but Ralph insisted on applying the final Band-Aid.

It sticks to Sylvester's cold finger, and Ralph, for the first time since Walter passed away, actually cries.

Sylvester is peaceful and almost smiling in the coffin. At the end, he confided to Ralph that he didn't mind that the end of his life was so near. Soon, he would see Megan again.

Ralph places the box of Band-Aids in the coffin too. He would never have been able to take it home and _use_ them.

And Ralph knows a secret. As he neared the end of his life, Sylvester just wanted to talk about Megan.

Even though he married in his early twenties, Sylvester remained faithful to Megan long after she passed away. Never kissed another woman. Danced with one. Held another's hand.

Sylvester, like Walter, like Ralph, only stated facts. He meant his _always._

And the vows that they took all the way back in 2015, in a hospital room, sealed by an internet minister and some Band-Aids, never included _'_ _til death do us part._

"He's ready now," Ralph tells them, and he is escorted out.

.

He goes to the same beach they said farewell to Megan on. His family – what's left of it – is there. Sylvester's ashes are in an urn, not black. Ralph does not cry as he places them within the rocket.

The others do. Ralph smiles, thinking of Sylvester's happiness.

While most geniuses do not believe in the afterlife, Sly could not face any life without the promise of Megan in his future.

.

"I'm still wearing my Band-Aid," Megan whispers to him, through her tears.

She is beautiful like she was when Sylvester met her. Short, fluffy hair, clean and sweet-smelling. No chemicals, no antiseptics, no tubes. Her cheeks have color, and her dimples are showing.

"Me too," he replies, when they are through their initial hug.

"You know, Sly, I saw," Megan says, wiping her eyes, smiling radiantly. "You never got rid of it. You wore it all the time. Every day. And I don't know if you saw, but Ralph made sure it was with you to the very end. You don't know how much that means to me."

"I think I do," Sylvester whispers back. The astrophysics and math of their existence wants to occupy his attention. He wants to analyze and understand the afterlife.

But the miracle of Megan – the everlasting miracles she worked for him by loving him – is too much, and math and science cannot compete.

"I still love you."

"I never stopped."

.


End file.
